Employers kept their pace of hiring virtually steady in December, falling short of the levels needed to bring down the country’s lofty unemployment rate and pointing to lackluster economic growth in 2013.

Other data on Friday gave stronger signs of growth, with the U.S. service sector activity expanding the most in 10 months.

Payrolls outside the farming sector grew 155,000 last month, the Labor Department said. That was in line with analysts’ expectations and slightly below the revised gain of 161,000 reported for November.

The jobless rate was steady at 7.8 percent. The report reinforces expectations of 2 percent economic growth this year, which is unlikely to quickly bring down the unemployment rate.

It is also unlikely to make the U.S. Federal Reserve rethink its easy-money policies anytime soon despite growing unease by some policymakers over a bond-buying program.

In a nutshell, this economy really stinks. Still. For four years. Someone this morning called it the “new normal.” But it’s not so new, and it’s not so normal.

Don’t trust them — they don’t count anyone who falls off the rolls when their unemployment runs out, and since we’ve had this moribund economy for over four years now … figure real unemployment and underemployment is far closer to 20% …

[…] with mental giants like Hilda Solis out there shaping economic policy. After this morning’s dismal jobs report, Obama’s labor secretary appeared on CNBC and claimed that extending unemployment benefits […]

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